By MICHAEL GINGOLD
A Southern legend is creeping into release all over the country.
THE GEECHEE WITCH: A BOO HAG STORY, based on the lore of the Gullah Geechee people, opens today at Regal Cinemas in multiple states; to find theaters, click here. Directed by Jeremiah Kipp (SLAPFACE) from a script by J. Craig Gordon, Phoenix Higgins and Jason Walter Short, it stars Tryphena Wade, Stephen Cofield Jr., Basil Wallace (MARKED FOR DEATH), Lance E. Nichols, Ernestine Johnson and Sinclair Daniels (INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR). The synopsis: “After her mother-in-law is mysteriously killed, Leah [Wade] and her husband relocate from Harlem to his family’s estate in coastal Georgia. Out of her element, she grows increasingly convinced someone in the low country has put the ‘root’ on her. Leah’s fears are realized when she discovers a Boo Hag has been unleashed on her family. Disguised in the skin of past victims, the witch is determined to take Leah’s husband–and her life.”
“We’re so thrilled to be sharing THE GEECHEE WITCH in 10 states across America,” Kipp tells RUE MORGUE. “Since our cast was from New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Orleans, we’re able to have people who worked on the film attending multiple premieres, which makes my heart sing. I look forward to the audience response as our monster, the Boo Hag, preys on our characters in their sleep and hides inside their stolen skins like a body snatcher.
“If you speak to the Gullah Geechee community who were vital to our film in front of and behind the camera,” he continues, “they’ll tell you that the witch isn’t just a bit of folklore; she can be quite literal. Our writer/producer J. Craig Gordon was rode by the hag as a young person, which made him want to tell this tale. I’m glad we have the chance to bring this monster to cinemas, a vampiric descendent of West and Central Africa who was brought to the low country of the Carolinas and Georgia among the slaves on cotton and indigo plantations. Sometimes I don’t know what’s scarier: the monster or the twisted history of the Antebellum South that lingers in our cultural landscape. The past won’t stay buried, and neither will the Geechee Witch.”
For more info on THE GEECHEE WITCH: A BOO HAG STORY, head over to its official website.
